This brief vignette is my contribution to the:
2024 Literotica Sex & Sports Story Challenge
The story features bouldering, a type of un-roped rock climbing. A short glossary of bouldering terms appears at the end.
-- -- --
Alice yelled, "fuck!" very loudly, and squeezed her slashed finger-tip, blood oozing between her other digits. Quartz monzonite, eroded by the desert wind, was a bitch. One of the crystals she had been seeking in vain to grip had sliced through her flesh as she fell.
Alice pushed her sunglasses back on top of her head and surveyed the damage. She considered just taping the gash and trying the problem again. But the amount of blood would just destabilize the tape, and she'd probably end up doing herself more damage.
"Let me look, Alice." Chris was one of the three guys in her group, and had been spotting her. "Nasty, you might need to glue it."
That convinced Alice that discretion was the better part of valor. She selected a large BandAid, instead of climbing tape, and wrapped it round her injury. "How about you? You wanna try your project again?"
Chris held out hands covered in both chalk and tattered and bloodstained tape. "I think I'm good."
"Great, in that case, let's get back to the hotel early. If I can't climb, I need to use up my energy in some other way."
A big grin formed on Chris's features. "Sure, Alice. Always ready to help.
They each squatted on a mat, and pulled off their climbing shoes. Alice waggled her toes, glad to be out of their tight confines. As she did, a Spiny Lizard mounted a nearby rock, took a look at the two of them, and decided to duck back into cover. Alice loved reptiles, even the very unhappy rattler they had inadvertently disturbed the other day.
Changed into approach shoes, and having gathered up their belongings, the pair each shouldered a mat, and put their backpacks on backwards, hanging in front of their chests. It was more than a mile back to the car, and the terrain was not easy.
It was hot, mid-nineties, too hot for climbing really. They had to stop for water before long, and the idea of air conditioned rooms was appealing. As climbers do, they chatted about the day, how they had done, what problem they might try next.
Chris was always super-encouraging. "You nearly had it that last time, Alice. You'll send it for sure once your finger heals."
Alice was less convinced, the climb was both subtle and powerful in equal measure. She wondered whether it was simply beyond her current abilities. Still, Chris was right, she'd come close at least.
The pair eventually picked their way back to the makeshift parking lot and their rental SUV. A second, larger rental, used by their friends, was the only other vehicle there, testament to the less than ideal conditions. The other four were in a different part of the boulder field, a mile in the opposite direction. Alice could dimly hear their voices.
"We'll catch them later," she said.
They threw their stuff in the back of the car and Chris asked Alice if she wanted to drive.
"No, you can, my finger hurts."
The hotel was a few miles off, on the Main Street of the little town -- population 4,400 -- that gave the area its name. It was pretty nice as these things go, their rooms had small kitchens. As Chris negotiated the dusty, rocky desert tracks, Alice looked at the surrounding hills through her sunglasses, some still snow-topped, even in September. Then she had an idea. "You wanna check out the thermal pool?"
The Monzonite and Tuffs that they had come to climb were both volcanic in origin. While there were no longer any active volcanoes in the area, the whole valley sat above a massive magma chamber. Water from the hills percolated down and was heated, being forced back up to form hot springs. Some were much too hot for humans to stand, but a few were more like warm bath water.
Chris smiled. "Sure, but I don't have a costume, shall we just wear our climbing clothes?"
Alice replied, "I don't need a costume, you're not shy are you?"
Chris said nothing, but his smiled broadened.
-- -- --
A few miles on paved roads, then they turned back on to the narrow, dirt trails. After twenty minutes, they could see the pool, sitting in the middle of a plain, strewn with small, pumice-like boulders. A short walk and they reached its side. Looking around them, there was no sign of other people for miles in any direction, just a shimmering heat haze distorting the shapes of the surrounding hills.
Chris sounded a little tentative. "You know the temperature can vary sometimes? I heard that superheated water can suddenly surge in."
'Geologists!' thought Alice to herself. She ignored him and pulled her shirt up and over her head. Chris had seen Alice naked before, indeed they had been intimate -- it was part of the fun of having a relaxed and mixed group. The sex was casual, just friends having fun. But the sight of Alice's muscular shoulders, taut abs, and -- most of all -- tiny breasts, topped with soft, conical nipples, was always so arousing for Chris. So was how matter of fact she was about nudity.
By now, Alice had dropped her shorts and panties, and was dipping a toe into the warm water. Chris was reminded that, despite there not being an ounce of fat on Alice anywhere else, she still somehow had a perfect bubble butt, good genes he guessed.
Alice was now in the water up to her knees. She turned and looked at her companion. "You joining me?"
"Sure," replied Chris, trying to drag his eyes away from her smooth, hairless vulva, and very aware that Alice's body had already had a strong physical effect on him.
Alice continued to regard Chris steadily as he too took his T-shirt off. The boys often climbed topless, it was customary in bouldering circles, but she normally found this more amusing than arousing. Alice thought it a mildly homoerotic practice, or at least just showing off. But her climbing buddy certainly had an excellent physique. Tanned skin, broad and powerful shoulders, climbing-toned arms, and pecs that would probably deflect bullets.
All that meant little to Alice. She was fonder of Chris's open, friendly face, framed by curly blonde hair. He had a boyish innocence, she found charming, and which belied his graduate student status. And -- best of all -- he was a good guy, a decent human being who treated others well, including all the girls on the trip. There weren't enough men like Chris.
But Alice was confused, and it was the very obvious bulge in her friend's shorts that was the cause. Of course a naked girl might be all the excuse a guy needed for an erection. And maybe Chris was simply remembering one of the times that they had previously hooked up. But it seemed more to Alice than simple lust. Was there a reason Chris was always in a hurry to partner her? Could it be he liked her?
It seemed so unlikely. Alice thought that the two other women in the group were much prettier than her, certainly more womanly. Addie in particular could have been a model, save for an unfortunate complexion that had dogged her from being a teen to her current senior year.
